NYPL 386

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122923

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122923.

Transliteration

1(asz) gazi gur
e2-kiszib3-ba ensi2-ka-ta
1(asz) ku6 bil2 gur
1(u) ma-na na4-ka
2(disz) ma-na sze-gin2
[e2-kiszib3]-ba lu2-kal-la-ta
1(disz) dusu
ga? [x] tug2
ki lu2-szul-pa-e3-ta
kiszib3 [da]-a-gi4
mu [x] x TUM-x gar3 gesz um ba-hul
da-a-gi
dub-sar
()

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 386. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122923) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122923..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.